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This roguelike twin-stick shooter has its own sense of style, but its somewhat vanilla arcade-like grind detracts from its long-term viability
As a massive fan of twin-stick arcade shooters and roguelike progression alike, the Switch has offered a pretty consistent flow of engaging titles that satisfy both cravings. That said, precisely because the platform is so flush with great titles, newcomers to the party like Lone Ruin have a tougher bar to clear in order to make a lasting impression. Make no mistake, if you’re looking for a shooter that emphasizes the arcade side of things, focused primarily on bringing more and more challenging enemies on a consistent basis to deal with, this will likely scratch your itch nicely. On the roguelike side there are certainly quite a number of options you’ll have in terms of your attacks and skills are concerned, with a bit of a learning curve to go with them as you understand which suit your style best. The issue becomes whether or not these elements together, when lacking a bigger picture or some juicy meta progression of some kind, are enough to make it stand out and in this regard it stumbles a bit. Its look is distinctive (though not always in a good way since your view in some circumstances can be obstructed) but there just seems to be a spark missing that would take the experience to the next level, leaving it as being merely decent.
Justin Nation, Score:Good [7.5]